The Webcomic Overlook #96: Jack
September 17, 2009 at 8:44 pm | In 1 Star, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, adult webcomic, furry webcomic, gothic, horror webcomic, webcomics | 39 Comments
Oh, Lord, the things I do for this site.
Inevitably people ask me, “I you hate a webcomic so much, why don’t you read something else and leave this poor comic alone?” The question is usually phrased less fluently, and the spelling is usually more atrocious, but that’s the gist of it. The answer to that question is rather complex. I, in fact, wrote an entire essay on it, cover such things as increased readership, a verbalization of what to look for, and, my favorite, revenge.
There’s one other reason that I didn’t cover in my essay: the triple-dog double dare.
Not too long ago, a loyal reader of The Webcomic Overlook suggested that I ransom my mental sanity by actually reading and reviewing Jack. I won’t reveal his name, but he does write a comic I like where a green haired girl runs around totally starkers. (And it’s pretty good, too … surprisingly.) This reader was quite likely Lucifer himself. I swear I smelled the faintest whiff of brimstone as I was reading his e-mail.
However, against my better judgment, I decided to take him up on this challenge. To quote Nathan Rabin: “I was motivated by the purest, most powerful impulse known to man: the need to prove myself intellectually to an anonymous stranger on the Internet.” So I did some stretches, a couple deep breaths as prescribed by my sexy lady trainer on the Wii Fit, and plunged into the world of Jack.
The following is a sordid recollection of what happened next.
WARNING: The content below is definitely not kid-friendly, and is most likely not safe for work. Let’s just say if you click on any of the links, and your boss decides to send you straight to a company licensed psychiatrist, then it was your own damn fault.
One Punch Reviews #23: Fatawesome
July 10, 2009 at 7:37 am | In 1 Star, One Punch Reviews, The Webcomic Overlook, comedy webcomic, webcomics | 12 CommentsTags: Fatawesome
Earlier this week, I credited Cracked.com for jumpstarting the readership of the very excellent Daisy Owl. Now comes the yang to that ying. That magazine is not quite the greatest arbiter of good taste. Eventhough I’m almost certain that its readership is composed of 90% nerds, the humor can best be described as “fratboyish.” Which, in a sense, means that Fatawesome, a recent recepient of Cracked.com’s seal of approval, is a better representative of everything that Cracked stands for.
But what does that mean, exactly? Cracked is actually pretty good from time to time — the internet equivalent of junk food. Is Fatawesome the Angus burger and fries of webcomics?
The Webcomic Overlook #87: Loyalty & Liberty
July 2, 2009 at 5:29 pm | In 1 Star, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, all ages webcomic, furry webcomic, historical webcomic, webcomics | 32 CommentsTags: Fourth of July, Furries, Loyalty and Liberty
Tell me if you’ve ever found yourself in this situation. You’re at home from school and cracking open your history assignment. Tonight, you have to read Chapter 32 (pages 534-610) on the American Revolutionary War. Midway through reading about the Battle of Bunker Hill, you throw your hands up in the air.
“I can’t read this anymore!” you say. “It’s so borrrrring! There’s got to be a better way to bring the American Revolutionary War to life! Preferably with furries!”
Let me tell you friends: now there’s a way! That’s why, this Fourth of July, The Webcomic Overlook unfurls the Stars and Stripes, fires up “American the Beautiful” (Ray Charles version), and takes you to a world where Redcoats and Minutemen shed blood to determine the fate of the nation. Just in time for both the nation’s birthday and — weirdly enough — AnthroCon, it’s the Revolutionary War … with cats! That’s right, the Webcomic Overlook turns its patriotic eye to Loyalty & Liberty, a webcomic by Tamara “Meezer” Clarke (with editors Shane Clarke and Dave Ireland).
Continue reading The Webcomic Overlook #87: Loyalty & Liberty…
The Webcomic Overlook #81: Raven’s Dojo
June 11, 2009 at 8:08 pm | In 1 Star, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, anime, comedy webcomic, fanservice, manga style webcomic, webcomics | 13 CommentsTags: Raven's Dojo
Hero spends about seven episodes training to fight an unstoppable villain. Hero and villain meet, and, after spending an inordinate amount of time staring at each other. They have inner monologues which last for several minutes on how they’re going to beat the other guy with their unstoppable techniques.
Finally, they fight. Which lasts for thirty episodes or so. The good guy and the bad guy trade the exact same punches for the first episode, after which the bad guy boasts over the next episode how he has this hidden technique that he hasn’t used yet. He spends the next three episodes powering up, where the heroes just sorta stand around with their mouths open. And then the villain unleashes his powerful move… which is totally ineffective because the good guy has his OWN unstoppable technique, which is, apparently, IMPOSSIBLE!
Repeat.
Congratulations. You’ve just watched an episode of Dragonball Z.
The show is quite infamous among anime circles for running, say, a string of 70 episodes with perhaps 10 minutes of actual content. Even the most diehard fans will admit that Dragonball Z was one of the dumbest things on TV. Yet, somehow, creator Akira Toriyama somehow created the most influential anime in history. Several anime, from Yu Yu Hakusho to One Piece, followed in its footsteps.
The show is a favorite on the internet, from popular memes (“Over 9000!”) to AMV’s (which range from gleefully ridiculous to surprisingly touching) to one of the most infamous webcomics of all time (which, incidentally, also inspired its own AMV).
Unfortunately, we’re not going to be talking about BUTTLORD GT. Instead, the Webcomic Overlook is reviewing a newer entrant into the burgeoning field of Dragonball Z parodies/homages/shameless rip-offs: Raven’s Dojo, written and illustrated by Raven Perez.
The Webcomic Overlook #62: Grim Tales From Down Below
December 21, 2008 at 11:57 am | In 1 Star, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, anime, fantasy webcomic, horror webcomic, manga style webcomic, pop culture caricatures, webcomics | 50 CommentsTags: Bleedman
One day, I will be reduced to a quivering neurotic heap in need of serious psychiatric help. It’s a question of “when,” not “if.” And when I get the bill, I’m forwarding it to loyal reader Christopher. Why? Because of comments like this, which showed up in my review of Vinson Ngo’s, nee Bleedman’s, Sugar Bits:
Grim Tales From Down Below really isn’t bad in a fun way. I mean, the Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi is awful, but the nostalgic concept of having all the good cartoons fight all the bad ones is kind of neat, and reciting all of Dexter’s super-dramatic monologues in his trademark accent is fun. It moves along at a semi-brisk pace and it’s over quickly.
Grim Tales though… man. To answer an earlier question, yes, Mandy grew up, married Grim, and somehow had kids with him. And that is not NEARLY the most disturbing thing that happens in Grim Tales. And the thing is, unlike the PPG doujinshii, Grim Tales is INCREDIBLY BORING. It’s much closer to Sugarbits in that respect.
Read that again. Now ask yourself: is there anything in the world that would keep me from taking a look at Grim Tales? There are few things more alluring than cultural dreck. I may never have the guts to climb perilous cliff faces, go skydiving, or even think about braving the Moab in a flimsy little Jeep… but, goddammit, I can prove that I can survive the most mind-numbing movies, books, and comics known to man!
Even better, it seems that recently Grim Tales and the rest of the Bleedman Unholy Trinity (Sugar Bits, reviewed here, and Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, reviewed here) has been brought back from the dead. On a chance click to the Snafu Comics site, I came to the joyous revelation that all three comics had been updated. My eyes welled with tears of morbid fascination. It was like Bleedman had given me an early Christmas present. Little did it cross my mind that Christopher’s post was not a challenge, but rather, a dire warning. Oh, if only I’d listened.
If there were a time to heed Dante Alighieri’s warning of “Abandon hope all ye who enter here,” this would be the time. It only took 10 pages for me to start clawing at my eyes. 30 pages for me to start muttering, “What the hell, Bleedman. What the HELL?!?!?!” And thus began my accursed descent into incomprehensible awfulness and stupidity.
Abandon hope.
Continue reading The Webcomic Overlook #62: Grim Tales From Down Below…
The Webcomic Overlook #59: Sarah Zero
November 23, 2008 at 9:03 pm | In 1 Star, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, alternative webcomic, single panel webcomic, webcomics | 21 CommentsTags: Sarah Zero
“Pretentiousness” is a criticism that gets tossed about a lot, and most of the time I think it’s undeserved. Those blue peas in The Aviator, for example, is often called out as pretentiousness on Scorcese’s part, but when you think about it, it really didn’t derail the movie.
However, that doesn’t mean that pretentiousness does not exist. Take the case of Marina Abramović, the self proclaimed “grandmother of perfomance art.” Wikipedia has a good overview of one of her most famous pieces, entitled “Rhythm 0″:
Abramović had placed upon a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose. Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were scissors, a knife, a whip, and, most notoriously, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions. Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained impassive) several people began to act quite aggressively. As Abramović described it later: “The experience I learned was that…if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed.” … “I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.”
To which most of us would respond with, “Well, DUH.”
Seriously, what did she expect? I mean, you stand like a mannequin, you give people a bunch of objects … are you telling me that you never expected people would try to do things to get a rise out of you? And her conclusion was some trite little moral like “if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed”? Bull. I guess when I put on a mask to scare my wife when she’s reading a book, I’m really trying to say that “left to their own devices, humans will spread fear and malcontentedness.” Sorry, grandma. The only moral I got from “Rhythm 0″ is that performance artists are pretentious little drama queens who treat the most obvious observations about life as some sort of mind-blowing epiphany.
That said, today’s subject is about as close a webcomic can get to performance art. Surprisingly, the webcomic also has “0″ in its title: Sarah Zero, written and illustrated by someone calling himself “Ace Plughead.” (Isn’t that what Boris was always saying in GoldenEye?) Readers may be relieved by the break from my recent string of black-and-white webcomic reviews. Color! Finally! Just a word to the wise: there’s a very good chance that, by the end of this review, you’re going to hate the color red.
The Webcomic Overlook #45: Better Days
June 22, 2008 at 1:00 am | In 1 Star, Furry Week, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, dramatic webcomic, furry webcomic, webcomics | 28 CommentsTags: Better Days
The Wikipedia entry on “furry fandom” has this to say about media coverage:
Portrayal of the furry fandom by the media is generally unflattering, although recently there have been some attempts to supply a balanced viewpoint. Articles in Loaded, Vanity Fair, and the syndicated sex column “Savage Love” focused sharply on the sexual component of certain furries…. Most furry fans claim that these media portrayals are misconceptions, and some recent coverage focuses on debunking the myths and stereotypes of furries. A reporter attending Anthrocon 2006 noted that “despite their wild image from Vanity Fair, MTV and CSI, furry conventions aren’t about kinky sex between weirdos gussied up in foxy costumes”, that conference attendees were “not having sex more than the rest of us”, and that the furry convention was about “people talking and drawing animals and comic-book characters in sketchbooks.”
I can see where this entry is coming from. No likes to be stuck with the stigma of being a sexual deviant. In a way, I sorta hold furries in the same regard I hold cosplayers. They open themselves to ridicule by dressing up in ungainly costumes that they should’ve outgrown by the 5th grade and play childish games like furry Twister. Still, I imagine they’re no more goofy or perverse than Man-Faye or the guy in the Hello Kitty Vader outfit.
What really chafes me, though, is the unashamedly editorial nature of this particular wiki entry. There are fingerprints everywhere that this section is heavily guarded by defensive furries. Take the part that says “recently there have been some attempts to provide a balanced viewpoint,” for example. What are they talking about? That one article that no one read about an undercover reporter infiltrating AnthroCon? Call me a Wiki elitist, but this is one of those entries that should be flagged. I especially love how the entry needs to point out that, at the conventions, furries are “not having sex” and they spend their time to drawing animals. Wow! Just like your grade schooler does when she draws herself riding a pony! How can drawing animals be anything but pure and lovely?
When it comes to Jay Naylor’s Better Days, you come to the frightening realization that drawing animals isn’t the innocent, harmless hobby it’s made out to be. All those “unfounded” stereotypes in that Wikipedia entry are right here — shameless, naked, and out there for everyone to see. While there is no overt pornographic content, I should warn you that the content and links will be Not Safe for Work and Not Safe for Children. So if you’re either wasting company time or under the age of 12, I humbly suggest you follow this link to my review of Dean Trippe’s Butterfly, a whimsical little tale about a superheroic young boy. There’s nothing overtly pornographic about Better Days, but it is explicit. There’s also a very good chance you’ll run into ads for Naylor’s other pornographic projects.
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